HomeTechnologySmart skin electronic tattoos the next leap in health tech

Smart skin electronic tattoos the next leap in health tech

So you always wanted to be a space roving cyborg stacked with futuristic gadgets and gizmos attached to your appendages. Maybe a self-medicating first-aid box attached to your wrist too. Even that shouldn’t be too far off from becoming reality as a team of scientists has already come up with a “smart-skin” device that monitors your body’s vital signs.

The patch peels off easily when no longer needed. | Photo courtesy John Rogers

The person behind this skin-like electronic device is professor John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He along with his team have come up with an ultrathin, stretchable skin-like membrane with electronic sensors that can diagnose various bodily functions. In fact, it is like a temporary tattoo, which is bendable, stretchable, and lightweight. This membrane-like patch can be used to monitor body temperature, heartbeat, brain waves, aid muscle movement, and even help heal wounds. The best part of this skin-like membrane is its portability as it can be directly applied anywhere on your skin with the comfort and convenience of a simple temporary tattoo, hence doing away with cumbersome electrodes and wiring of health monitoring devices.

This skin-mounted electronic sensor can pave the way ahead for future technologies that connect the physical and cyber worlds in the most convenient way possible. This small patch can have huge potential in the way computers will be integrated into the human body, probably in the near future. What’s more, this can be a welcome change from the embedded microchips in our brains that popular sci-fiction has been saying all these years.

About Nidhi

Nidhi is the Gizmo Gal for iYogi. A writer by choice and Gizmo Geek by nature, she brings the hottest and latest happening in the Gadgets’ world. So, when you need a peek inside the tech world, you know where the action is.